McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT)

McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. decreased its holdings in Alliant Energy Co. (NASDAQ:LNT) by 14.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,020 shares of the company’s stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Alliant Energy were worth $238,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LNT. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 2,605 shares of the company’s stock valued at $158,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the period. RDA Financial Network grew its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. RDA Financial Network now owns 7,990 shares of the company’s stock valued at $473,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 8,637 shares of the company’s stock valued at $524,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the period. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $390,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the period. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Alliant Energy by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 8,744 shares of the company’s stock valued at $531,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on LNT shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Alliant Energy from $65.00 to $61.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Alliant Energy from $66.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Alliant Energy from $52.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Scotiabank downgraded Alliant Energy from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $64.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on Alliant Energy from $61.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Alliant Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.39.

Alliant Energy Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of LNT opened at $58.59 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.60. Alliant Energy Co. has a 1 year low of $46.80 and a 1 year high of $64.19. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. Alliant Energy had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 16.66%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.05 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Alliant Energy Co. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alliant Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.5075 per share. This represents a $2.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.46%. This is a boost from Alliant Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. Alliant Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 74.42%.

About Alliant Energy

Alliant Energy Corporation operates as a utility holding company that provides regulated electricity and natural gas services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations, and Utility Other. The company, through its subsidiary, Interstate Power and Light Company (IPL), primarily generates and distributes electricity, and distributes and transports natural gas to retail customers in Iowa; sells electricity to wholesale customers in Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa; and generates and distributes steam in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.